


Our Garden Has a Beautiful Yellow Flower

by Hevheia



Series: The Old Guard Duolingo Prompts [4]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Coming of Age, M/M, Modern AU, True Love, that sweet gay awakening
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:21:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26856619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hevheia/pseuds/Hevheia
Summary: When Yusuf was eight years old, his mother told him about hearts and flowers and souls meant to meet. Or: another take on the soulmate-trope.Part of the The Old Guard Duolingo prompts series: a series I started posting on tumblr where I take random sentences from duolingo and use them as prompts for small drabbles of our favourite immortals!
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: The Old Guard Duolingo Prompts [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1952467
Comments: 8
Kudos: 225





	Our Garden Has a Beautiful Yellow Flower

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Our garden has a beautiful yellow flower (Ο κήπος μας έχει ένα όμορφο κίτρινο λουλούδι)

When Yusuf was eight years old, his mother told him about hearts and flowers and souls meant to meet. “Our garden has a beautiful yellow flower,” she told him, “you know which one i’m speaking of?”

Yusuf nodded eagerly, it was the prettiest of all in his opinion. He had wanted to pick it sometime ago, but an inexplicable dread had stayed his hand.

“Of course you do, my light.” Yusuf loved his mother’s smile, the reliable safety of it. “Well, you have to take very good care of that flower, because it is very special. It is your heart, my love. It grew on the day you were born and will continue to grow and change as you grow and change. Now listen carefully, my love.”

Yusuf sat on the edge of his seat, inching closer as his mother leaned closer too.

“In Fall and Winter, when your flower seems to disappear, don’t think it is gone. You have to guard it extra closely and keep it safe, for it is very fragile then, but still resilient. And tend to it in Spring and Summer, when it blooms and basks in sunlight, but do not consider it invincible. And most importantly, my little Yusuf, do not ever give it away.”

Yusuf tilted his head. “Not ever?”

His mother shook her head. Then paused and got that look on her face that meant she was thinking hard about things Yusuf couldn’t understand yet. But apparently she decided to give Yusuf the benefit of the doubt because she said, “Well, there is one person. Your soulmate. Only in their hands, your flower will not wilt and fade.”

Yusuf’s eyes went wide. _Soulmate_. He had heard classmates whisper about it, but was never sure if it was real. 

“But how will i know?” he asked. “What if i pick it and give it to someone and it’s not my soulmate?”

“Ah, for that you have to look closely to your flower. You have to know your heart, see how it changes with the seasons of your life. And if you know your heart, you will know when the right soul has touched yours. But be careful, sometimes your head wants to believe things that are not in your heart.” Her warm fingers touched his temple, then his chest. “Listen only to your heart, trust only your flower.”

Yusuf was quiet for a moment, allowing the words to seep in his skin and find a home inside of him. He looked over his mother’s shoulder, where two purple and red flowers were sitting on the mantlepiece. They had been there for as long as Yusuf could remember. 

He looked his mother in the eye and nodded gravely. She smiled again, hugging him close and kissing him, and told him to go play outside.

When Yusuf was fourteen years old, he thought he was in love for the first time. He had listened closely to the tales of his friends, how they went to parties and kissed girls and secretly held their hands in class, how they discussed which girls to date and which to ignore. He listened closely and decided that he must be in love. It was a girl from his class. She was pretty like the sea reflecting diamonds of sunlight or whatever else poets would say. She was sweet and everyone wanted to be her friend just like everyone wanted to be Yusuf’s friend. So it was only logical she became his girlfriend. 

Yusuf liked her, and he really did want to love her. He went to his flower every day, even in Winter to see if maybe his love for her could make the flower break through the frost. In Summer he studied the petals and wondered if they were a little lighter than usual, if there were white veins running through them that hadn’t been there before. "Come on, heart," he whispered to the flower, "a lot of my friends would do anything to be with a girl like her."

Sometimes, when he was desperate and frustrated because why couldn’t he just _love her like he should_ , his hand reached for the flower. Once, he had held the stem between his fingertips. so thin, so fragile, pulsing slightly. It would be so simple. Only one little tug, one small movement and he would give it to her and he would-

He released the flower and went inside.

When they broke up, all he felt was relief.

As the years wore on, Yusuf became convinced love maybe wasn’t meant for him. Not all love, obviously, he still had love for his family and for his friends, but soulmate love? How on earth would he ever know what it felt like? How on earth would he ever even find his soulmate between all those billions of people? 

No, his mother had been right, better to leave the flower where it was. And he stopped going to the garden to study the petals and the width of its stem. 

When Yusuf was eighteen years old, he went to college to study art. He ignored the hollow feeling in his chest that grew and grew ever since he stopped going to his flower, and told himself his life was fine like this. That he was happy because what did he have to complain about?

He met Nicky in a very unimaginative way. They were roommates and introduced themselves like they introduced themselves a thousand times over in the first days of their college life. Still, there was an immediate ease between them, a pleasant calmness that left a soft warmth in Yusuf’s chest. 

Before long, they became best friends. Inseparable almost. Neither of them knew how or when or why. It just happened. They laughed and talked for hours on end and sat in silence studying and working on assignments and cooked together and fell asleep in the same bed while watching a movie. They shared clothes and books and everything really. At parties, they danced together and Yusuf didn’t notice all the girls attempting to flirt with him until Nicky told him about it.

“The one with the red top was cute,” Nicky said after a pause. It was 5am and they lay on Yusuf’s bed. 

Yusuf shrugged and said, “I guess.” And he turned and because there wasn’t a lot of room in his bed, his head somehow landed on Nicky’s chest. Nicky froze beneath his cheek, but Yusuf couldn’t make himself draw away, his heart pounding in his throat. Then Nicky’s arm wrapped around his shoulders, his thumb stroking gently. Not much later, his breath evened out. For some reason he could not explain, Yusuf’s eyes stung with tears of something so big he was afraid to name it. But after half an hour, he too, fell asleep surrounded by Nicky’s familiar scent.

When Yusuf returned home that summer, his mother greeted him with a look on her face Yusuf hadn’t seen before. 

“What’s wrong? Is it something with dad?” he asked, panic rising in his throat.

“No, my light, nothing is wrong.” She smiled her smile full of safety, full of love. “Why don’t you take a look in the garden?”

Yusuf eyed her for a moment, processing her words, then slowly made his way to the garden. He saw it as soon as he set foot on the grass, but didn’t let himself believe it until he kneeled before the beautiful yellow flower in their garden and touched it. 

One petal was blue.

Now, Yusuf is eighty-two years old and Nicky is too. And on their mantlepiece stand two yellow and blue flowers, still in bloom like their first spring.


End file.
